The goal of the panel discussion, titled "How equal and equitable is health care in Serbia?", organized by FREN and SeConS to mark the 4th edition on the Monitoring Social Situation in Serbia (MONS) web platform, was to present latest data and to open for debate main issues... Read more

Belgrade, October 4, 2017. Participants of the panel discussion "Youth in Serbia: Journey From School to Work", organized to present the third issue and topic on the internet platform for monitoring the social situation in Serbia, MONS, noted that the transition from school to work in... Read more

The Foundation for the Advancement of Economics as a local partner of the World Economic Forum on the "Global Competitiveness Report" announced today the results of the latest report on the Global Competitiveness Index. The event was held in the premises of the Serbian Association of... Read more

Belgrade, 2 December 2016 - Children in Serbia have significantly higher risk of poverty (30%) compared to the general population, as compared to children in the countries of the European Union (19%). For existing social protection programs in Serbia to respond more ... Read more

Team

Jelena Žarković Rakić - Director

Jelena Žarković Rakic works as the director and program manager of FREN sice 2012.

Within the framework of research projects she is dealing with issues of tax and social policy and labor market issues. Some of the projects on which she worked are: Creating a micro-simulation model of tax policy and social benefits for Serbia (FREN and University of Essex), Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia country chapters for the OECD tax and benefit model (2009, World Bank) , Simulation of effects of the Draft Law on Social Protection on the income distribution and poverty in Serbia using SRMOD (2010, World Bank). From inactivity to employment: Options for raising activity and employment in Serbia (FREN and Social inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia), Making Work Pay in Western Balkan Countries: Evidence from Serbia and Macedonia (Regional Research Promotion Programme Western Balkans), Making a budget calculator (PRO CONCEPT in cooperation with the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia).

For professional training she stayed at George Mason University (2005, USA) and the European University Institute (2009, Italy). She participated with notable contributions in the work of a large number of domestic and international conferences.

Aleksandar Radivojević

Aleksandar Radivojevic works as Financial and Administrative manager at FREN. Aleksandar completed master studies at the Department of Economic policy and development in 2011 at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, where he currently attends doctoral studies. He is a project coordinator of the Executive Opinion Survey in Serbia for the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report. As a researcher he works on the project „The level of corporate governance in public companies founded by Republic of Serbia”, while as a financial manager he works on all other FREN’s projects. Prior to the current engagement, Aleksandar worked as an assistant to the general director in the construction industry based company, where he gained excellent organizational skills through management of several construction sites. He speaks English, and has medium level knowledge of Italian.

Marjanovic Dragana

Dragana Marjanovic works as a project manager for FREN on projects: FP7 Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies (EFESEIIS) and Evaluation of the package of services for youth and active employment policy measures aimed at youth. She holds a Ph.D. in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. She has specialized in the area of employment promotion of the labour market disadvantaged. She has managed the ILO component of the UN Youth Employment and Migration Joint Programme providing policy and institutional capacity development aiming at supporting the employment of the most disadvantaged youth (Roma, PWD, beneficiaries of Centers for Social Work, etc.), also through the integration of employment and social protection services.

Marko Vladisavljević

Marko Vladisavljević he is a researcher at the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN). He graduated from the Department of Statistics and Informatics in 2008 and completed master studies at the Department of Econometrics in 2011 at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. He currently attends doctoral studies at the same faculty, and graduate studies in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. His research interests include a wide range of applied economics and psychology topics with a focus on gender equality, poverty, labor market and identity. He worked as a consultant in several research projects funded by the World Bank, ILO and UN organizations. As part of FREN's team he has won several scholarships for research: Analysis of the impact on migration and remittances on social protection in the countries of the Western Balkans (RRPP, 2014), The inactivity of older persons in Serbia (Erste, 2013), Enabling flourishing and development of social entrepreneurship for innovative and inclusive society (FP7, 2013) and Gender wage gap in the Western Balkans (RRPP, 2012).

Lara Lebedinski

Lara Lebedinski works as a researcher at the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics where she specilazes in educational and labour market policies. She is currently engaged as a researcher for FREN on projects: FP7 Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies (EFESEIIS) and Evaluation of the package of services for youth and active employment policy measures aimed at youth.She has worked as a researcher on several projects: Evaluation of Roma teaching assistants programme in Serbia (Universita’ Luigi Bocconi), Employment, wage discrimination and poverty in Belgium(Université catholique de Louvain), Resettlement Action Plan for the Residents of Makis, Resnik, Jabucki Rit and Kijevo Container Settlements (OSCE).

2017

Today's presentation of the new online platform for Monitoring Social Situation in Serbia MONS (www.mons.rs) highlighted that the great increase in inequality has negative consequences on economic growth and stability of the society.

To reduce the gap between the rich and the poor in Serbia, it is necessary to improve the policies that contribute to higher employability, such as education policy, lifelong learning and active employment policies. This was presented today at the presentation of a new online platform "Monitoring of the Social Situation in Serbia" (MONS).

Social enterprises, in addition to realization of their economic function through the sale of products and services on the market, have an important social role to contribute to solving social issues. This was concluded at a conference organized by the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics FREN.